The present invention relates to a radiographing plan assisting method and an X-ray CT (computed tomography) system. Particularly, the present invention is concerned with a radiographing plan assisting method which utilizes a user interface, as well as an X-ray CT system having a user interface for assisting a radiographing plan.
The X-ray CT system is adapted to collect transmitted X-ray signals of plural views of a subject with use of an X-ray irradiator/detector which is rotating within a gantry and reconstruct a tomographic image on the basis of the transmitted X-ray signals. The rotation of the X-ray irradiator/detector is also called scan. The transmitted X-ray signals thus collected are also called scan data.
The X-ray CT system has a user interface. The user interface comprises a graphical user interface, through which a user can operate the X-ray CT system interactively. The user interface is used also for preparing a scan plan (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).
[Patent Literature 1]Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-85395 (pp. 5-6, FIGS. 4-6)
The preparation of a scan plan is performed by selecting a radiographing protocol best suited for an anatomical site from among plural radiographing protocols stored beforehand in the X-ray CT system. With diversification of radiographing protocols, the operation of a user interface for preparing a scan plan is becoming more and more complicated. Consequently, it takes times to prepare a scan plan and as the case may be the user is perplexed.